Sturgeon report

Headed up to Kayak Point State Park on Port Susan.  We launched from the northern most tip of beach in the park bout an hour before the low tide and paddled about a nm NNW from the state park, and about 1/2 nm into the bay. This put us off the mouth of the river on the mud flats in about 25' of water.

Lots of action! Unfortunately, none of it was sturgeon. Over a couple of hours we got a dozen Spiny Dogfish, small sharks 3-4 feet long, and a number of dungeness crab. I had tied a dozen 6/0 barbless hooks with 48" 40# leaders (snelled) and we ran through almost all of them, because the damn dogfish nicked up the leaders. Bait was frozen herring hooked through the head with 3 half-hitches down the body to the tail. 3 ounce pyramid weights on a slide. Just chuck it out a few feet or just drop it to the bottom. Almost immediately a dogfish or crab would grab it. We moved a few times, but could never get away from them.

We foul hooked a lot of them when setting the hook. About half of them were hooked in the mouth, but the other half were hooked in fins, chins, and back. J brought one up hogged tied! Hooked through a pectoral fin with the leader looped around the tail. Still it put up a good fight.

The crabs would latch onto the bait and if you pulled them up gently and reached into the water and grabbed them rather than let them break the surface, they could often be boated. We caught 2 keepers, lost a bunch, and threw back a few.  We could have each easily limited with a couple of those castable crab snares.

After thinking it over, the water temperature was about 65F at the surface and perhaps the sturgeon have gone deeper than their spring feeding grounds?

After giving up on sturgeon we "salmoned up" and trolled back and around to our launch point. Took a food/cigar/beer break, then I went back out and jigged for salmon for another hour off the park. J bottom fished and trolled. Nothing.

The park was busy, and we saw no salmon taken. None of the boaters we talked to on the water had caught salmon and none had seen other boats take salmon. The crabbers were doing well. I was marking bait balls and occasional fish on the sonar, but no action.

Now that the truck is back on the road, I hope to get the crab pots back in the water and troll around off Richmond Beach, which has reportedly been hot the last week for salmon.

How often do you fish this area?

This was the first time both at this location and for sturgeon.